A woman in a black kimono dyed black hair
disappeared behind a black curtain
I’d decided to give a poetry reading in drag
A feather boa many shades of blue
turned into a string of seashells
Odd light from elaborate lampshades
antique furniture Sally Kellerman’s
I couldn’t find the right high-heels
so decided not to do the reading in drag
I might not be able to handle it
Outside my automobile a small red truck
wasn’t where I parked it Carloads of men
all in the same red gown and blonde wig
began arriving for the reading A guy
I think he was flirting sang to me
but then he put his arm around another guy
I had to find my truck I took a shortcut
through a fenced courtyard A long line
of schoolgirls wearing party dresses carrying balloons
marched towards me I jumped up to avoid them
On the next street a wild dog chasing me
teeth viciously snapping at my feet
As I ran along a path that twisted
through some trees I realized I was flying
flying high enough to escape the dog
and could see all the backyards below
like the neighborhood where I grew up
and I thought my red truck my red truck
3/7/89
David Trinidad’s most recent books are Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems
(2011) and Peyton Place: A Haiku Soap Opera (2013), both published by Turtle
Point Press. He lives in Chicago, where he teaches in the Creative Writing
Department at Columbia College.
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